Jump to content

Where to find bargains?

ITProDad

By ITProDad
in Watch Repairs Help & Advice

 Share

Recommended Posts

Dpastl Watch Enthusiast

Dpastl

Posted
Posted

I've been having great luck with ebay lately.  It takes a while to find  searches that work and give good results but once you do you can get ebay to send you alerts when new items matching those searches are found. 

You might also have access to catawiki, not sure.  It's not available in Canada :(.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

Posted
Posted

         

 

                                                           INFORMATION                                                   

 

                                                            

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Nutiborskoku Watch Enthusiast

Nutiborskoku

Posted
Posted (edited)

I'm afraid that the watch market has evolved beyond bargains. In my experience, there's always something wrong with the watches that are left. Sellers are usually quite experienced and know exactly what they're selling. eBay gets too many eyeballs and the watch virus is too widespread for true bargains to be available for long. Professional watch dealers have people looking for them all day long so there's not much left for enthusiasts like us.

In the past year, I've seen a friend buy a JLC Memovox, only to spend $800 on reparations and parts. A similar story with a "bargain" Omega chronograph. After parts and repairs, he paid more for it than if he bought a decent one in the first place.

To answer your question, I sometimes buy at watch fairs, local online marketplaces but I mostly buy watches that need some TLC from friends who are also collectors and hobby watch flippers. They can quickly and easily sell them to me and I have some nice projects for a decent price.

Edited by Nutiborskoku
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
clockboy Distinguished Member

clockboy

Posted
Posted

Auction houses can be fruitful but be careful you need a close inspection which is  usually offered a day or two before the actual day of the auction. Omegas ,Rolexes etc that are not working especially vintage are to avoided.

If there is one problem when looking for antiques, watches etc is the sellers use the internet as we all do, so rarely anything is sold at a true bargain price.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
wls1971 Distinguished Member

wls1971

Posted
Posted

You can get bargains you just have to look for them, people do wrongly list things and in order to find a price for something it often helps if you known what you are searching for, sellers don't always and often come to the wrong conclusion on price, I have had recently a 14 kt gold automatic longines for £120 listed as gold filled a lack of understanding on American gold markings on the sellers part I should imagine, a 9 ct pocket watch listed as gold plated at £50.00 again an ill-informed seller, a quarter repeater pocket watch listed as a chiming watch £99.00 buy it now and various IWC pocket watches, I don't attend auctions anywhere near as much as I used to commission charges are an average of 25% now with many at 30%  I find them a bit of a non starter now.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
stevew Watch Enthusiast

stevew

Posted
Posted

I usually use E-bay, as house bound at present. Traders are a joke price on e-bay, and as said before a lot of scrap watches, which is fine if cheap, when learning the hobby. I personally have a pile of not fixing as not worth the cost of a repair, saying that i also have acquired some nice pocket watches before which work, just need hands/crystal. Wish i could get to boot sales, but expect the same, people hunting for them, before its opened.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Nutiborskoku Watch Enthusiast

Nutiborskoku

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, stevew said:

I usually use E-bay, as house bound at present. Traders are a joke price on e-bay, and as said before a lot of scrap watches, which is fine if cheap, when learning the hobby. I personally have a pile of not fixing as not worth the cost of a repair, saying that i also have acquired some nice pocket watches before which work, just need hands/crystal. Wish i could get to boot sales, but expect the same, people hunting for them, before its opened.

Exactly. The best watches are already gone when it's open for the public. I know for a fact that dealers at watch fairs are swapping and buying the best pieces from each other long before the official opening time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
m1ks WRT Addict

m1ks

Posted
Posted (edited)
43 minutes ago, ITProDad said:

 


“Boot sales”. ?? Not familiar with that term


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

A UK term. Car boot sales, a large gathering where people drive into a field and sell items from their car boot (trunk in US parlance) typically Sunday mornings. Again like the above they're now saturated with dealers getting in early as possible and buying up the best stuff and many sellers now either knowing the rough value of things or having watched too many episodes of Dickinson's real deal or bargain hunt think every bit of crap they have is worth a load more than it really is.

 

Edited by m1ks
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ITProDad WRT Addict

ITProDad

Posted
  • Author
Posted
A UK term. Car boot sales, a large gathering where people drive into a field and sell items from their car boot (trunk in US parlance) typically Sunday mornings. Again like the above they're now saturated with dealers getting in early as possible and buying up the best stuff and many sellers now either knowing the rough value of things or having watched too many episodes of Dickinson's real deal or bargain hunt think every bit of crap they have is worth a load more than it really is.
 


Ha!! [emoji851]. I’m from Texas. I was actually thinking there was some kind of gray market cowboy boot traveling show of which I was woefully unaware! Thank you for helping with my English!

It does sound like fun.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ITProDad WRT Addict

ITProDad

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Well, I don't about bargains, but the NAWCC chapter meetings and regionals can be fertile grounds. There is a lot of trading that goes on, but wristwatches might be only a third of what you come across. The rest are clocks and pocket watches.
Have Fun!


I started with pocket watches. I have about 52. Maybe I should put some up for sale or trade.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Link to comment
Share on other sites
yankeedog Distinguished Member

yankeedog

Posted
Posted

It depends ..if you are looking for watches from the big players,bargains are sparse.If you are content to just have good running watches look at the off brands. 17 jewels or better,round crystal and stainless steel cases with screw down backs..buy intact complete watches whenever possible.you Will often be surprised to find that a watch that looks like it was pried out of the asphalt will have a spotless movement..the reverse is also true. Old caravelle watches came with horrid cases and very nice citizen movements. HMT watches have very sturdy cases . And a movement that will interchange directly with the caravelle.. lots of ways to have fun for not a lot of money.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
AndyHull Distinguished Member

AndyHull

Posted
Posted (edited)

Don't forget to look at the job lot and junk lot auctions on ebay. You know the sort of thing, "{random number} watches for spares or repair", also look at lots that say "watch faces", as these are often complete watches, but also be aware that an "Automatic" may in fact be a manual wind, or even a quartz, so inspect the pictures carefully. Avoid anything that is being sold with out of focus or poor pictures, it is probably a piece of garbage, deliberately badly photographed.

You do occasionally get some nice pieces in among the dross. Don't expect any Rolexes or Omegas (excepting the usual crop of fakes of course), but do look out for odd ball stuff, high end, but relatively unknown Swiss marques, mechanical Seikos in with a bunch of modern cheap Chinese "copper frying pan" watches, Swiss automatics, high end Swiss quartz, very scratched up crystals, missing crowns, disgustingly filthy straps and other relatively easily fixed items in both the single lots and job lots.

Oh.. and if you want to beat me on the auction, bid £4.05p or more.:P

Edited by AndyHull
Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Topics

  • Posts

    • rossjackson01
      Intro

      By rossjackson01 · Posted

      Welcome my friend. 
    • rossjackson01
      Help please.

      By rossjackson01 · Posted

      Been there. Worn that Tshirt.  'ping'. Hands and knees. Nothing. Nada. 20 minutes? Ha! I found it 7 month later. How? Well, after advice from a member, I invested in a £4 UV light torch.  Hands and knees looking for a 'ping' from a Sekonda, found them both within 30 seconds. UV makes the jewel shine. easy peasy. Could have taken longer. Just lucky on the location of the search. Hope this helps.
    • Rixy
      Broken lug

      By Rixy · Posted

      Thanks Dell. I thought about silver soldering. Have never done it but would like to give it a go. Do you think to put flux on the butted joint then run the solder in or to maybe brace it with a piece of scrap spring steel?
    • rossjackson01
      Without Our Forum

      By rossjackson01 · Posted

      Never and others. Yes, like you I do spend a fair amount of time reading the contents of this forum. I find it better that any other. Clear, lucid, no Prima Donas, and most of all an easy access without adverts. All thanks to Mark. God bless you mate. You give so much to many of us. What if? No Mark? Hypothetically. A forum. I did run a forum for a few years. Really enjoyed it, but became so engrossed that it did affect my health. I gave to to others to run. Not been back. It was very successful and rivalled a number of large paying sites. No adverts, no others but me. I did ask and listen to members comments and it worked well.    Costs Having a domain name, £10 annually.  Register the site with a forum company, free. Build the site using the forum company guide lines, free. It looked and ran almost the same a Mark's. All the same facilities. The cost was only £5 per month, but counted visits (views). If I recall, it was that price for 5,000 views. Each extra 5,000 views increased the price by £2 per month. Success was my own personal undoing. From £5 per month initially, it rose to £60 a month and looked like increasing. This was 10 years ago. I could not afford that, and asked it anyone would like to take over and someone did. I would assume that this is the price that Mark is funding for us all. His return is our continued comments on the internet about his course, and the fact that many of the big names on YouTube mention him as their Tutor. Those of us who have done, and are still using, his course, benefit. In comparison to other courses, I can't believe how cheap it is, and the value is exceptional. It is the structure that gives the value. Long may Mark reign. Ross  
    • TheQuietMan
      Help please.

      By TheQuietMan · Posted

      Hi all, total newbie to watchmaking and I've had a bit of a mishap. Just completing level 2 and was doing ok, but I was just on the last part of the reassembly of my ST3620 when the balance end stone shot across the room, just as I was trying to see if I had put the correct amount of oil between it and the balance end, aarrrgh! Been on my hands and knees combing the carpet for 20mins looking for it but to no avail. Does anybody know where I can get a replacement from and what to look for please?? Thanks.
×
×
  • Create New...